Waiting for Spring: Chapter Two - Axis Powers Hetalia, Russia x America (AU)
C h a p t e r T w oWhen Ivan arrived at the cottage, the feel of Alfred's lips still on his own, he wasn't entirely sure how he and the Baltic Three would be travelling to palace. Walking would take far longer than the time Eduard had mentioned (they were… oddly adamant about arriving at the capital and him being wed before the end of the day), and they had only one swaybacked mare that had come with the cottage and Ivan had never seen do any work between them.
His question was answered when Ravis met him at the door with a travel satchel and instructions to pack up whatever he would need for the journey. "Feliks will be here soon," he added as an afterthought, "with the horses."
Ivan nodded his understanding thinking of the horse breeder who lived an hour away from their cottage. He was an old friend of Tolys', so with a little clever storytelling, Ivan didn't doubt that the eldest Baltic could convince Feliks to lend them a few horses.
Packing took no time at all; all he really wanted for the journey was his Bible, the letters from Alfred and his chamomile pin. Not wanting to damage the gift, he pinned it to the inside of his tunic. Feeling the cold metal against his chest made him feel as though he were a few steps closer to Alfred, which warmed him in ways that a blanket or fire couldn't.
Ivan was buckling the satchel closed when Eduard called upstairs for him to finish up, Feliks had arrived. Ivan shouldered the bag and looked around the bedroom. Memories of bedtime stories, fevers, dreams-his youth flickered through his thoughts, and he was struck once more with how he would miss this place.
Still, dwelling on the past would solve nothing, nor was it Ivan's way… not that this stopped him from giving the doorframe an affectionate pat as he left.
When he stepped outside the cottage, the Baltics and Feliks were waiting for him, prompting a humble apology from the young man's lips. The Baltics dismissed the apologies (they'd not been waiting long, they reassured); Feliks simply nodded to him and gave him the reins of his horse, a chestnut brown stallion. Ivan gave the animal an friendly pat on the neck before mounting and nodding to his guardians and their guide.
Now fully assembled, the group turned northward and started toward their destination. The sunset painted the sky a brilliant orange red, which quickly faded to the blue-black of night; with the arrival of night came a chill in the air, prompting the five to draw up the hoods of their cloaks. No one carried a lantern, and no one dared speak above a whisper; unlike the magic and fairies, the bandits Ivan was taught to fear were a very real threat.
• • •
When the sun rose, they were half a mile away from the capital. Ivan admired the way the sunlight struck the towers of the palace. Somehow, it looked exactly as he had imagined it.
When they arrived in the capital, it was just starting to wake. As more and more people started to fill the streets, more people started to notice Ivan, and many dipped their heads in respect. They know, Ivan concluded. Of course, it made sense that the people of the capital (my subjects! and how strange it felt to call them that) would know about the arrival of their prince, but to be treated a anything other than Ivan, the boy from the cottage at the edge of the woods, was so strange…!
By the time Ivan had finished turning these thoughts over in his mind, they had arrived at the palace's great iron gate. After a brief, whispered conversation between Tolys and the guards there, the gate was lifted and they were allowed to pass through. As Ivan rode by, the guard saluted him, and Ivan returned the gesture. All this attention was going to take getting used to…
Ivan followed the lead of the Baltics and Feliks and reined his horse to a stop in the middle of the open courtyard. He absently stroked the animal's neck before dismounting; from the moment his boots touched the ground, he found himself swarmed by people who all seemed to be focused on the task of preparing him for the ceremony that evening. The sudden, massive influx of attention rendered him close to mute, and he could only throw a glance over his shoulder at the Baltics as he was ushered away. I wonder when I'll get to see my parents, then.
• • •
Ivan remembered when he was little, and one of the Baltics was given the unlucky task of giving him a bath. It was a weekly affair, likely to get him into the practice of it later, he mused. Not that it stopped the little boy version of him from leading Tolys, Eduard and Ravis on a wild chase that resulted in both him and his pursuer being ten times dirtier than they were to start. The mental image almost made him laugh today.
Almost. That feeling that came after those baths, of being scrubbed down to the skin and probably glowing pink, wasn't quite as nice when delivered by someone else's hand to a twenty year old, Ivan decided. Not only that, but there was a rather lengthy discussion among the aides tending to (or was it torturing?) him about what to do about the twenty years of damage to his skin. Ivan felt privately offended that they would consider his time spent doing honest work in the sun (pale though he remained) damage.
He was barely given a reprieve after that, and was dried and shuffled off to a small group of tailors. Ivan had been a tailor's dummy for the Baltics before, but at least there had been conversation and pleasant chatter then. Now, as he was put into an elaborate suit of white, silver and pale blue silks, the only conversation was between the cloth and scissors, and the occasional bit of shop chatter among the tailors. The silence hung over Ivan like a hangman's hood. "When will I get to see my parents?" he asked as one of the tailors re-measured his sleeve.
"I can't say, Your Highness," the tailor replied, keeping his eyes on his work.
"I was promised I would see them before the ceremony," Ivan noted icily.
Another tailor spoke up, his voice subservient. "I'm certain that you'll see them soon, Your Highness."
Somehow, that consolation didn't make Ivan feel any better.
Heaven only knew what his father was doing, but whatever it was, he wasn't done by the time Ivan's suit had been finished, and the prince tried to hold back his disappointment. His consolation prize was a set of clean clothes-very fine, but blessedly plain-in which to wait out the final hours until his wedding.
And wait he did, for several hours, in what he assumed would be his bedroom-his and Alfred's, if the size of the bed on which he sat was any indication. Were all grooms as nervous as he was on the day of their wedding, he wondered as he made another futile attempt at drying his palms. Nervous energy tingled in his fingers, and he knew reading would be pointless. Oh, he still had Alfred's letters, but knowing that he was somewhere in the palace made the letters feel a poor substitute.
He looked out the narrow window, hoping to distract himself even slightly. All he could see was the courtyard, and the bustle of activity within, but beyond those high stone walls were the kind of people with whom Ivan had grown up.
…Would it be so bad for him to spend a few final hours among his people? Wasn't a good king supposed to know and care about his subjects? If he was going to be king, shouldn't he get a head start on that? Alfred'd had plenty of time to do that while Ivan was living in the country, and he'd have a lot of catching up to do.
The very idea of being out in public, out of the stone walls of the palace, made his heart flutter, and wanderlust took over. Ivan found his travel cloak (carefully folded over and resting on the trunk at the foot of the bed) and put it on, fastening it about his neck before reaching into his bag and pulling out the chamomile pin. He took a moment to affix it to his tunic, and, as a final thought, pulled the hood up over his head.
Ivan expected there to be even one person outside his door, someone guarding the prince, but found none when he pushed the oak and iron door open. Frankly, he preferred it that way, and slipped out before he could question the blessing.
When he had first arrived, he had been ushered from the courtyard to the baths to the tailors to the bedroom; tracing his steps from those places was the easy part, but once he was lingering in the mouth of the open courtyard, he realized that he had made a very serious error: failing to account for how crowded the courtyard. The realization made him feel extremely foolish-on the day of his wedding, how could he expect anything less? It was times like this that Ivan would have greatly preferred not being royal.
A few moments later, a windfall in the form of a passing cart, accompanied by a small group of people. Not one to question such a blessing (two in so short a time? God must have been smiling on him today), Ivan readjusted his hood and fell into step with the group. Dread touched his consciousness as they passed the guards at the gate, but he was able to pass through unrecognized.
Ivan followed the cart until it reached an open market before breaking away and taking a long look around. The market was filled with people, both travellers and denizens of the capital, and it occurred to Ivan that these people could very well be attending his wedding later. How strange to think of it that way…
But Ivan had come here to take his mind of the wedding, so he laid the thought aside and started to wander the market. These open markets were nothing new to him-he had always loved going to the village market with the Baltics, and was a fair haggler-but he was instantly taken with the exotic goods for sale: spices and fruits, silks, jewelry and baubles… He was starting to regret not bringing coins to purchase a trinket or a small snack; surely his compliments on the vendors' wares would be a sufficient substitute…? He made a mental note to, as king, carry coins for this exact purpose.
Ivan's attentions shifted from his little resolutions to the cages of brightly colored exotic birds. As he admired the blue and yellow plumage of the bird closest to him, a woman's voice called, "Sir?"
Ivan looked around, and discovered he was the only "sir" to be found. How strange, when the market was so crowded. "Yes, Madame?" he replied.
The woman who had spoken to him was small, coming up only to his chest, and the dark dress and cloak she wore made the skin of her hands, and her eyes and hair seem even paler. She beckoned him closer from her place across the alley, and Ivan stepped closer. So far as he could see, she had no stall from which to sell any wares, which were also curiously absent. "I have a gift for you," she told him, her voice hushed.
For all her lucidity, the absence of anything that looked sellable made Ivan wonder if she was mad. "A gift?" he repeated.
"Yes, sir," she replied. The woman knelt to pick up a cloth-wrapped bundle at her feet. Holding it as one might an infant, she peeled the cloth away to reveal a bouquet of bright yellow sunflowers. "These are your favorites, aren’t they, sir?"
There had to be at least a dozen flowers in her arms…! "How did you get these sunflowers?" he asked. "I thought all the sunflowers in the kingdom were brought here for the prince's wedding." How strange to refer myself in the third person…
"I saved them," she replied, holding them out to Ivan once more. "Please, sir."
Ivan could hear Ravis' voice echoing in his ear, gently chastising him to accept the gift. Even without that reminder, even with the reservations this woman's sanity sent tingling in his mind, even though he knew he would receive sunflowers-more sunflowers than he could ever dream of-in a few hours time, these were far too lovely to pass by.
With murmured thanks and a sincere smile, Ivan accepted the flowers. As he considered how the color reminded him of Alfred's very personality, he suddenly felt very, very tired.
• • •
Watching Ivan fall wasn't like watching a tree fall, as she had predicted; rather, as she watched his knees give out beneath him and his body drop to the ground, it was like seeing a tower with a crumbling base collapse. Thankfully, he didn't hit his head or hurt himself in the fall. The woman-and how good it felt to refer to herself as Lady Natalia again!-pushed her hood back and smiled down at the unconscious prince, the air around her all but thrumming and glowing purple. "Dobry dzień jašče raz, trochi Ivan."
-.-.-.-
Title: Waiting for Spring
Author: TheCrazyAlaskan
Fandom / Setting: Axis Powers Hetalia (anime) - Folklore and Fairy Tales AU
Characters / Pairings: Ivan R Braginsky x Alfred F Jones; Tolys Laurinaitis, Eduard von Bock, Ravis Galente; Natalia Arlovskova; appearances by many more
Characters / Pairings in This Chapter: mentioned Ivan R Braginsky x Alfred F Jones; Tolys Laurinaitis, Eduard von Bock, Ravis Galente; Feliks Łukasiewicz; NPC…
Rating: T+
Genre: Adventure, romance
Warnings / Notes: None so far
Relevant Quotes: I am fond of this Thy stubborn project, / And to play my part I am content. / But another drama is in progress, / And, this once, O let me be exempt.
-- "Hamlet," Boris Leonidovich Pasternak
" I am not sorry that I've met you, / and not afraid to love you, too."
-- "Rain Flogs My Face...", Izabella Akhatovna Akhmadulina
Summary: Princes Ivan Braginsky and Alfred Jones are betrothed, so that their marriage will strengthen their two kingdoms. However, the wicked Lady Natalia promises to steal the young prince for herself. Teaming up with Prince Ivan's guardians, Prince Alfred embarks on a journey to save his betrothed and the kingdom, and to learn what it takes to be a leader.
Are you on the edge of your seat yet?
Poland wormed his way in there. I don't get it either.
All characters, Axis Powers Hetalia © Hidekaz Himaruya